About two weeks ago, I originally discovered that Lincoln Center in NYC's Walter Reade Theater was hosting something called "Shinjuku Outlaw:  13 From Takashi Miike", a 13 film Takashi Miike film festival featuring his most recent film, 13 Assassins.  Now, having a day job and all, I wasn't able to necessarily see ones I wanted in 35MM (such as Audition or that premiere).  However, it just so happened that I was going to be able to see one of my favorites as it was playing in a Friday night showing.  I bought my tickets both for that reason and because Miike himself was scheduled to be in attendance for a Q&A about the film.  However, I also knew that the film I would witness wasn't exactly horror... but that was okay as I would combine a "Not Quite Horror Review" of that film with a site report write-up of Miike's discussion.  And then...

Reality intervened.  As I'm sure anyone reading this knows, a 9.0 Earthquake struck Japan on March 11, 2011, leading to a deadly tsunami wave, a nuclear event, and a radiation leak.  As I write this, the death toll from the combined disasters in Japan has surpassed 7000 not to even mention the people missing, injured, homeless, and hungry.  As should be obvious, the most important thing in such a situation is to help the people affected.  Miike, obviously and understandably, cancelled, sending along a short piece for the people running the festival to read.  The festival also gave a portion of the ticket prices to relief efforts.

While I may be just a random guy in an apartment, the way I see it, I can at least provide the information people would want in order to facilitate donations.  Any person should want to do what they can to help, and any horror fan should in particular because of just how influential and important the country's general genre output has been, whether it be from Miike, Junji Ito, Edogawa Rampo, The Pang Brothers, Takashi Shimizu, etc.  I know I wouldn't feel right if I hadn't used this blog in some small way to help the country that's provided me with some of my favorite movies.  I'll provide a link after the review to an article with a list of viable, legit charities who are doing their part to help in the effort so that you, the reader, can pick which way you might want to do your part.

Ichi the Killer, aka Koroshiya 1 or Koroshiya Ichi, is one of Takashi Miike's most popular movies, usually alongside the more horror-centric Audition.  Ichi the Killer itself, though, is not horror.  It's not exactly easy to describe what its genre is though.  It's more of an over-the-top, ultra-violent yakuza black comedy than it is anything else...an adaptation of a manga by Hideo Yamamoto.  In a nutshell, the film is the story of the Anjo crime clan after their boss is brutally eviscerated by an unknown assailant.  The rest of the clan just thinks he's missing, though, as a cleaning crew has left the room spotless.  Boss Anjo's underling, Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) sets out to figure out the boss's whereabouts.  However, Kakihara is a sadist, torturing those he questions when they don't provide the information he desires.  Meanwhile, a shy young man named Ichi (Nao Ohmori) is the subject of a parallel story as his father figure Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) convinces him to give into homicidal impulses and kill "bullies".  As Kakihara's interrogations lead to the clan's expulsion from the whole crminal syndicate, Jijii continues manipulating Ichi's fragile psyche to make him do his bidding.  Sooner or later, the sadistic Kakihara will have to come face to face with the mysterious assassin... and he can't wait.

The 35MM print I saw was somewhat beat-up, but there's still no substitute for seeing a film like Ichi the Killer with a theater of people who can appreciate it.  Sure, there's plenty of blood, body parts, and insane visuals... and they're that much MORE effective around people who can laugh at the film's dark sense of humor and crazy violence.  Is it perfect?  No.  It's a little too long around the "late middle" and a few of the more unnecessary characters of the film could've been cut to tighten up the overall yakuza story (particularly a beaten prostitute and her violent pimp).  But if you want to know WHY Miike and foreign film in general is so important, this film is a must-see.

Ichi the Killer is probably most famous for two things:  Its gore and its performances.  Point of fact, its controversial nature probably comes from the grue (realistic, practical, and cgi enhanced) and its combination with such a dark story and characters.  When the viewer considers that Miike is taking such things as a tongue being severed or an arm being ripped off with one's bare hands... and very effectively playing them for VERY dark comedy...it's easy to see how it can make people uncomfortable.  Then there's the story itself, where the viewers are supposed to kind of "like" Kakihara, this scarred, pierced sadist who hangs men from ceilings on flesh hooks and severely burns them with tempura oil.  They're supposed to pity Ichi even though heavy arterial blood spray seems to follow him whereever he goes.  Neither of these would be possible without Asano throwing himself into his killer role or Ohmori playing vulnerable so well.  Without the two of them as the movie's centers, it would just be a gorefest which, while able to be good in its own right, wouldn't be anywhere as unique or compelling.

Overall, I give Ichi the Killer four out of five Freak Heads.  It's a little overlong and is VERY intense... possibly more crazy than some can handle.  However, if you can take its particular brand of "insane", you'll find a very unique story centered on a series of engaging performances and some of the most unique blood and gore setpieces you'll ever see.  Takashi Miike:  He may not always be horror, but he always brings some of that sensibility into his work.  And I hope that you'll take this opportunity to help his home country come back from the devastation both because it's the right thing to do and because we, as a group of genre fans, owe his country so much.

CLICK HERE TO FIND LIST OF CHARITIES TO WHICH YOU CAN DONATE AND HELP IN JAPAN'S TIME OF TRAGEDY (THIS LINK IS DEAD.  THANK YOU FOR DONATING TO THIS WORTHY CAUSE.)

CLICK HERE TO SEE A TRAILER FOR ICHI THE KILLER